VAUXHALL'S chairman and chief executive has joined the country's biggest engineering union in calling on the Government to join the European single currency as soon as possible. In an interview on Radio 4's Today programme Nick Reilly said: 'Being outside the Euro is costing us a lot of money in terms of transaction costs, hedging costs and the uncertainty about where the exchange rate is going. That's a penalty we in Britain are having to face and our European counterparts are not and that's putting us at a disadvantage.'

Reilly said the Government should set a plan to join the EMU 'as soon as possible'. He presented his pro-Euro views at a conference held by the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union last Friday, reiterating views made in January when Vauxhall and Ford united with other business leaders to call for full monetary union.

At the conference Ken Jackson, general secretary of the AEEU, warned that millions of jobs are at risk if Britain does not embrace the Euro. Euro-membership would relieve Vauxhall of its annual £10 million a year currency bill. Reilly is concerned Vauxhall's parent company General Motors will favour investment in continental plants unless Britain signs up to the Euro.